Magic Lantern (Rogue Angel) (39 page)

Annja remained still, struggling just to stay on her feet even with the man holding her.

Only a few feet away, Fiona tried to get up, as well. Her hand flashed out for the machine pistol, but one of the men in black kicked the weapon away. Her opponent pointed his weapon at Fiona’s face and Annja knew he was going to pull the trigger.

A man’s voice barked out of the darkness.

The other man pulled back his weapon, then grabbed a handful of Fiona’s hair and yanked her roughly to her feet.

Edmund quietly got to his feet and stared at their captors. Eight men all dressed in black stood in the room. All of them heavily armed.

The man Annja figured must be Puyi-Jin strode in and trailed a flashlight around the room. She recognized him from his pictures. He gave orders and, within seconds, the men had lanterns set up around the room.

Most were trained on the obelisk.

The Asian crime boss surveyed it in silence for a long moment. Then he turned back to Annja. “Miss Creed.”

The man holding Annja jerked her forward to within arm’s reach of Puyi-Jin.

“You are surprised to see me here?” Puyi-Jin smiled broadly, but there was nothing friendly in his expression. “You found your way into Shanghai very easily, but I have informants among airport customs. I knew when you arrived, and I knew when you left. Following you here was child’s play. I had men on the flight with you.”

Annja wasn’t about to give the man the satisfaction of a reply.

He shrugged. “The only thing I want to know from you, Miss Creed, is where Tsai Chien-Fu’s treasure is.”

Annja glared at him.

Puyi-Jin motioned to the man holding Edmund captive. The warrior pulled out a sharp blade and pressed it against Edmund’s throat, slicing just enough to draw blood.

“Now, Annja, I want to know the location of that treasure.”

Reluctantly, Annja thrust her chin at the obelisk. “This is what I found when I got here. Evidently the treasure’s gone. Maybe the Qianlong Emperor’s assassins got it when they tracked and killed Dutilleaux in the catacombs.”

“No.” Puyi-Jin’s hazel eyes glittered. “I would know that if it had happened. I know the story of the captain assigned to bring Anton Dutilleaux back to Shanghai—
with
the things Tsai Chien-Fu took from the Qianlong Emperor. One of his assassins killed Anton Dutilleaux before locating the treasure. The captain himself was killed when he returned to Shanghai. The Qianlong Emperor had no mercy for those who failed.”

Annja’s ears still rang from the explosion. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Fiona and Edmund were brought closer. Fiona was measuring the opposition, memorizing the locations of the men and their weapons. Edmund was staring at the obelisk.

“The treasure has not left this room.” Puyi-Jin gazed at the stacks of bones and at the obelisk. “It remains here, and you must find it.”

The man holding Annja released her with a shove. She held out a hand. “I need a flashlight.”

One of the warriors passed her a flashlight.

Annja switched on the beam and approached the obelisk. She studied the carvings, trying to make sense of them. The dragons, koi, ghosts and foxes didn’t appear to have any real order.

“Hurry.”

With deliberation, Annja trailed her fingers over the obelisk. Some of the stones seemed more deeply set than others. “
If
the treasure is still here, Dutilleaux might have set a trap. You might want to consider that.”

“There is also the chance that someone heard the gunshots in this tunnel. If someone else arrives, I will have you and your friends killed at once.”

Annja considered the problem and tried to put herself into Dutilleaux’s mind.

“He was an illusionist, Annja,” Edmund said quietly. “Whatever Dutilleaux hid, it wouldn’t be in plain sight.”

The warrior guarding Edmund chopped him in the throat with the edge of his hand. Gasping and coughing, Edmund dropped to his knees. Annja started toward him, but two warriors intercepted her.

Puyi-Jin glared at her. “Find the treasure. You are running out of time.”

Annja turned back to the column. Edmund was right. Dutilleaux wouldn’t have hidden the treasure in such an obvious spot.

She glanced around the room again, taking in everything. It would have to be something Tsai Chien-Fu would know to look for in case something happened to Dutilleaux.

Her gaze settled on one of the piles of bones across the room. For the first time, she saw the pattern in the lower left corner of the stack. Skulls had been placed there in front of the bones but tucked back so they matched the bones.

Eight of the skulls sat in a horizontal row. Under the second, fourth and sixth skulls stood three skulls, two skulls and three skulls. There were eight skulls across and an aggregate of eight skulls piled under those in vertical columns.

Annja knew then where the hiding place was, and that the obelisk was a trap. Glancing up, she again noticed how the obelisk touched the ceiling, and the way the ceiling curved over the front door.

She looked at Puyi-Jin. “I know where the treasure is.”

“Then reveal it.”

“It’s a magic trick. Have you heard of the disappearing woman?”

Puyi-Jin shook his head irritably. “Show me the treasure.”

Annja glanced at Edmund and Fiona. “The disappearing-woman trick works like this—a woman lays on a table and a cloth is dropped over her. The audience doesn’t realize that the cloth has an internal wire structure that blends to the woman’s body, then
collapses
when the magician yanks away the cloth.” She turned to Puyi-Jin. “For all intents and purposes, the woman vanishes.”

“Now, Miss Creed, or the man dies.”

Hoping that Edmund and Fiona had understood her warning, Annja turned back to the obelisk. She grabbed one of the carved stones on the column and pulled.

40

For a moment, the carved stone Annja pulled on held. Then it grudgingly came away from the obelisk. It wasn’t just a stone, though. The carved rock had been attached to a three-foot-long iron rod that was pitted with orange rust.

Something shifted inside the obelisk.

Behind Annja, Fiona said one word. “Jenga.”

Annja nodded. “Exactly.” She searched for another stone to remove. Evidently Dutilleaux had hoped his ostentatious structure would draw the attention of anyone who didn’t know the room’s secret. At least Fiona knew what was going on and what would probably happen.

“Shut up.” Puyi-Jin stepped forward with a small automatic in his hand. He pointed the gun at Annja’s head. “No more talking.”

Annja grabbed another stone and pulled. The obelisk moved again, and this time a tremor ran up to the ceiling. Puyi-Jin and his warriors stared around the chamber, trying to fathom what was going on.

Ignoring them, Annja grabbed another stone and pulled another rod from the obelisk. This time when the grinding inside the obelisk started, it didn’t abate. The sound continued to escalate in the space of a heartbeat and became a thunderous ripple of cracking that filled the chamber.

The mortised area over the door that concealed the counterweight shattered and a rock slide poured out of the opening. Fiona broke free and grabbed Edmund by the shoulder, yanking the professor back as the avalanche toppled from the ceiling. She forced him against the wall. With all the dust rising up from the rock slide, Annja quickly lost sight of them, but she believed they’d managed to avoid the brunt of the falling rock.

Throwing herself forward, Annja dived clear of the obelisk as it came apart in a cascade of tumbling rock. Puyi-Jin had time to shout, then he was knocked down by the falling stone. Dust plumed up and the lantern’s light hit the cloud of particulates and filled the chamber with a milky-gray fog. The light-reflecting properties of the gypsum dust was almost as bad as the dark. Through the haze, Annja could only see vague images of the others.

She rolled to her feet in a squat, her left hand before her for support. With her right, she reached for the sword and pulled it into the chamber.

One of the black-clad warriors came at her from out of the dust. He had his pistol pointed in front of him and started firing immediately. Bullets struck the stone floor where Annja had been, but she was already running toward the man, angling for his right side. He wheeled and tried to come around, his pistol still jumping in his fist.

Annja swung the sword and the blade passed above the man’s outstretched arms and through his neck. The man’s head toppled down one shoulder and the body slid to the floor. Choking on the dust, her eyes watering, Annja got her bearings and headed back across the pile of rubble that had dropped where the obelisk had been. She searched desperately for Fiona and Edmund.

The column was now just debris covering the floor. The carved rocks were mixed in with the rough stones. A warrior tried to push himself up. Blood covered his face, but he freed his machine pistol.

Without breaking stride, Annja kicked the man in the head and he fell back, unconscious. Another warrior came out of the dust at her with his machine pistol chugging. Knowing she couldn’t throw herself across the rock-covered floor without sustaining injury and that she had no hope of sliding away, Annja leaped up as hard as she could, trusting her enhanced speed and strength to get her clear.

She flipped over the man and came down on her feet behind him. Reversing the sword, she thrust the blade behind her and felt the point crunch through the man’s chest. The resistance gave way at the last and she knew she’d pierced him through.

Spinning around, she put a foot into the man’s back and kicked him off the blade. Her breath came in hoarse rasps as the dust coated her mouth and throat. She searched for more opponents, remembering where they’d been before the rock had knocked them all down. Five were left. And Puyi-Jin.

Frantic, Annja raced toward the wall near the door. She’d last seen Fiona and Edmund there. The rubble appeared to thin. The swirling shadows created by the multiple lanterns caused even more confusion. She caught sight of a gunner slightly behind her in her peripheral vision. Planting a bare foot, feeling the sharp stone bite into her flesh, she pushed herself sideways as bullets split the air where her head had been.

Annja went into a low crouch and spun to face her attacker. He was ten feet away and content to keep his distance advantage. She watched him, hoping that she would know which way to move before he started firing again.

Harsh gunshots thundered through the chamber.

Confused, certain that she’d seen no muzzle flashes, convinced that the man would not have missed her at that distance, Annja watched the man fall back limply as his face came apart.

At Annja’s side, Fiona stepped out of the swirling dust holding a machine pistol in her hands. “How many?”

“I’ve put down three.”

Fiona nodded grimly. “Then we’re up to five. When I liberated this weapon, I killed the man holding on to it with his knife.”

Annja stood. The dust was still too thick for her to see far in any direction. Her eyes ached and burned and required constant wiping to clear the dust.

“Where’s Edmund?”

“He’s fine. I left him by the wall.” Fiona strode to the left, circling the biggest section of the fallen rock. Puyi-Jin and his warriors had been struck by most of it.

“Annja! Look out!”

Whirling at the sound of Edmund’s voice, Annja tried to bring the sword around, but the man who had risen behind her was too far ahead. He shoved his pistol muzzle toward her face and pulled the trigger.

Annja dropped in a loose sprawl, falling on top of the rock and below the pistol. Three shots thundered, and the muzzle flashed over her head. Lying on her side, she swept her right leg forward and knocked the man’s feet out from under him. The warrior went down as more gunshots rang out from Fiona’s position.

The warrior landed on his back and struggled to get up. Annja rolled over on her side, rose to her knees and grabbed the man’s gun wrist in her left hand. The sword couldn’t be effectively used in such close quarters. She released it and it promptly vanished. Surging forward, she caught the warrior’s face in her palm and banged his head off the stones until she felt him go limp beneath her.

Annja picked up her attacker’s gun and threw it aside. She didn’t want to risk ricochets inside the chamber. No one else involved in the firefight seemed to worry about that. She reached for the sword, found it and walked forward.

A shape stood about fifteen feet in front of her. Annja wasn’t sure if it was just a trick of the gypsum fog or if it was Fiona. Almost too late, the fog thinned and she recognized Puyi-Jin. Evidently he’d been waiting for his vision to clear, as well.

He pointed his pistol at her.

Reversing her grip on the sword as it hung at her side, Annja rocked her body forward and threw the blade underhanded, then raced toward Puyi-Jin. Even if the sword didn’t hit him, she hoped that it would be enough of a distraction to cause him to miss.